The holidays are such busy times and now that it is over, I finally have time to settle down and organize my life. I feel like everything has been so crazy and I was finally able to do a couple much needed things...(seriously I don't really know what I do with my time).

1. Cleaned out my car. Trust me, it is an accomplishment.
2. Registered for some more classes. I am getting my RN by way of testing out of my classes, only I am dragging my feet so bad! I thought it might help motivate me if I started taking some more classes at the College with it, so wish me luck!
3. Getting organized so that I can start and catch up on my little girlies scrapbooks. Once again, wish me luck. Once you get behind it is so hard to catch up.
4. Got my job back. So I had decided to try something new and was working with the Geriatric population, mostly dementia patients. I LOVED working with the dementia patients, but having to be responsible for upwards of 35 patients was just too many. So I am happy to report that I am back where I was and happy to be there.

Our little family is doing great as well. Ellie is finally walking. It took her over 16 months to decide to do it and now she is a pro! And she finally got her teeth. The same week that she decided to walk she got two bottom teeth.
Charli is doing so good in Kindergarten. She is learning so quickly how to read. It is amazing to watch her "mature" as she is learning.
Preslee makes us laugh...then yells at us for laughing. There is always something new with this one. She has gone back to throwing fits. It is really strange, but our life is so busy I feel like throwing crazy tantrums sometimes too.
As for Nic...I have been begging him to read the Twilight series for so long. So that when we go see the movies he will LOVE them instead of just liking them, and currently he is sitting by my side reading Twilight. LOL.

Anyway, my brother-in-law got married over Christmas and I got some fun pictures of our family.
It would be very abnormal to have a family function without one of my children crying. Made for a good picture though!

We told Preslee to give Ellie a hug for our picture. She tackled her and did just that.

I don't even know what to say about this one...other than I LOVE IT! I love how pictures catch so much of our childrens personalities.

Handsome Lunnen men.

Just like I said...PeRsOnAlItY! This is so typical of each girl.

Ellie kept pulling this face when we would tell her to smile.

My wonderful in-laws.

Whew! That was long.

HaPpY hAlLoWeEn!!!

Cute Ellie-bug. Grandma Val is in the background talking to Grandpa Rob. We really wish he could have been here to see the girls.

Such beautiful princesses!


This picture is of Nic's mom and the girls.

Our little family.

This year Halloween was so fun. Preslee and Charli were at such good ages. They ran from house to house and after each house gave them candy they would look in their buckets and say "Nope- we don't have enough yet, let's keep on going." Preslee would giggle the whole way between houses. Ellie-bug sat in the stroller the whole time just so happy. And of course the weather was awesome. We had so much fun! I love my girls!

We have been busy.

Charli started kindergarten last week. I feel so old! But, she loves it and that makes me happy. I always pictured the first day of kindergarten with me and Charli both crying because she wouldnt want to go. That is not at all how it went. She giggled the whole way there because she was so excited to meet all her classmates. The only one that cried was Preslee because her playmate was leaving.

We went to California for a week right before Charli started school. We went to Disneyland, the beach, Sea World, and the San Diego Zoo. Towards the end of the trip my brother Dayne flew out to spend some time with us. We were so glad he did and we had a great time.

Nics dad loves to feed Ellie. He gave her this rib and she loved it. As soon as we took it away she just screamed.

Poor Preslee was having some wierd reaction to the combination of the heat and humidity and got a huge raised rash across her face. The only nice thing was that it really didnt bother her at all.

Nics parents were visiting his sister in California the same time we were there so we were able to meet up and hang out with them.

I love beach pictures.

We waited in line for almost 2 hours to see the princesses but the girls felt it was way worth it.

My younger brother got married.

My pictures aren't in the order I wanted but I am too lazy to fix them. My younger brother got married the last week of June. It turned out really nice and we are excited to have our new sister-in-law. The wedding was at Rose Sachs Garden and then they had a small reception in my yard.

Our yard isn't exactly "reception worthy" but I think it turned out really nice.

Cute Ellie learned how to crawl two weeks ago and is getting into everything! She is nearly eleven months and crawled way later than our other girls, but we didn't mind at all. Now it is time to "baby-proof" again.

All our sibblings.

My brother Deryck (the groom) and my sister Tiffani.

Preslee was a self proclaimed flower girl... she told them that she was going to be a flower girl and so they let her and she did great!

Charli kept saying "I almost cried so many times...because I was just so happy!"

I love Ellie in the picture because her posture just demands attention. She looks like a southern belle. These are all the nieces and nephews.

My grandpa Peterson performed the ceremony and he did such a great job.

Hot Mama!

Brittani will probably kill me for posting these pictures (for some unknown reason), but I liked them. I think they catch her for who she is. She is the best mom to our kids, the most loving sister, and the best friend I could ever have. And she's smokin hot to top it off! No really, I've known Brittani for over seven years now and I don't know a more beautiful human being.

Brittani is one vivacious woman. She's sexy, smart, really funny, and doesn't take crap from nobody (including me :). There are so many things I love about her that I don't know where to start. From the first day I met her till now there are so many things. I don't know if she realizes this, but I'm a bit of a collector at heart. I think it started with sports cards. I collect things that have special meaning to me. With Brittani I have collected daily memories of her. All of these memories are who she is to me, even the ones I never experienced like when she grew up. I wish I could have been there to see that.

Brittani naturally attracts people to her. She is outgoing and just has one of those personalities that everyone loves. Before we got married, I took Brittani to our famous Hunt reunion in Torrey Utah. We all stayed in my parents' motorhome. The reunion is kind of dorky I guess you could say. Sometimes, I don't even know what so fun about it. Either way, that first year I woke Brittani up the first day sucking on her neck. I gave her the biggest hickey and everybody saw it. It was awesome. She was a pretty good sport and even joked with one of my great uncles about it. I also remember her doing like 15 backflips in a row in this big grassy area that year. She fit right in with everybody. In fact, alot of my relatives say she looks exactly like a Lunnen. Kinda weird.

When we first married we were surprised with a little one in the oven right off the bat. Everybody was counting the days trying to figure out exactly when it was that we got pregnant. Anyways, I have some fond memories that first year of marriage. I used to come home from work and we would cuddle up on this double recliner that really wasn't big enough for the two of us. I would kind of hand off the edge, but it didn't matter. We took naps there quite often. When she was 8 1/2 months pregnant she decided to be spontaneous and move. I wish I had a picture of her helping me down two flights of stairs with our couch ( which was pretty heavy). She's bulging and we had to lift it up above the railing. It was crazy and really funny now that I look back at it. She's a serious tough cookie.

There is something to said about the woman who bears your children. I'll tell you, I've seen every birth of our children close up (again she kill me for saying that :). It was unreal and the most amazing thing I've seen or been apart of every time. I can't believe she carried each of them and cooked them as good as she did. I know women do it all the time, (and I salute all of you) but Brittani does it with style. She's a pretty cute pregnant lady. I kind of have a thing for her when she is. Again weird. She's worked or gone to school or both full time each time she was pregnant almost to the day she delivered. Like I said, she is a tough lady. The other funny thing is that she is pretty pleasant when she's pregnant. She never got all crazy on me even doing all of things she does. I love her for that. There is a unique and special love that is created during these experiences. I'll always have the deepest respect for her for doing all of this. It's something I can't quite express.

Brittani is suckin smart and drives me nuts. I always thought I was smart. I was good at school (until I started not going in high school! Sorry mom.) and things have always come pretty easy to me. Brittani is plain old gifted although she'd probably say the complete opposite. That's what's funny is she doesn't even know how smart she is. Recently when she was going to school to finish up her LPN she had these daily assignments. She would get to class and everybody would compare answers and change theirs. Then they would go over their answers. Everytime she would change her answers and get those ones wrong. She always had the right answer the first time. I would tell her all the time to stop doing that. That's why I say she has no clue how smart she is. Another time, Brit and I were interviewing for this Apartment Manager job. We had Charli at the time. So we go in and they tell us that part of the process is to take this IQ test. So they give me the test and send me off to a secluded, quiet room to take it. I think we has like 12 min to answer as many questions that we could correctly. Meanwhile, Brittani is in the main lobby with Charli and tenants coming in through the door taking the same test. I could hear Charli wiggin out, so Brit had to hold her while she took the test. We get done and if I remember right, Brit got about the same score as I did all while wrestling a crying baby. They said that we had gotten the highest IQ scores that they had seen. So yes, I am kind of smart but Brit is smarter and it drives me nuts.

I can always have a good conversation with Brittani. Yet at the same time we can appreciate the silence sometimes or atleast I can. Brittani is a talker. I don't think she like the silence. What's great though is that our conversations aren't about superficial things. We have a lot of meaningful talks about everything. You name it. It's nice to be married to someone that you are physically attracted to and still have a good talk with.

I could go on and on about Brit. Like I said, I have been collecting these memories of her for a while now. These are what she is made of and who she is. I love her more each day than the day before. She still makes me nervous. I wish she could see inside of my brain and what I am thinking all the time. I don't tell her or show her enough how special of a person she is. I love you Brit.

Spoiled Baby

My in-laws watched the girls for us so we could go to a movie last weekend. A couple days later Charli told me this... "Mom, when we were at Grandma and Grandpas, Grandpa fed Ellie spagettios and he didn't even cut them up. I told him not to but he didn't listen." I told Charli that I didn't think that he would feed that to Ellie. When we saw them again I told him what Charli said and he started laughing and said that he couldn't believe that she told on him. It made us laugh because Nics dad loves to feed Ellie things that she has never eaten. Her grandma likes to feed her new things too. So we had to make a quick trip to their house the other day and Ellie got to try spagetti noodles and a green popsicle. Lucky girl!

Look at that face!

I had to throw this one in here. The other day I was on the phone and Charli came running into the kitchen to tell me that we had a "sad baby". I ran into the living room to find her napping in her "tea party toy".

Can you imagine being loved this much?!

Nicholas Graduated!

This was such an exciting day for our family. Nic has been working on getting his Bachelors in Russian and English from the University for seven years. In everything that has gone on in the past seven years along with him working full time to take care of our growing family he has never given up on his education.

Nics mom and dad have been such an amazing support. They help us watch the girls while we have been in classes and on the weekend sometimes so we can go on a date.

Nic and his brother Alex

The graduation was a little longer than we expected. We lost the binky during the graduation and left Ellies bottle at home. Poor girl was kinda cranky...but still so happy. This is a picture of my mom playing with her while we took tons of pictures of our new graduate!

Nic gave me and his parents a stohl to thank us for supporting him while he was in school.

Nic and his grandparents.

Nics dad and the girls...we had to bribe our little stinker Pres with gum to take this...doesn't she look happy!?

Ellie walked with her daddy.

Since we forgot the bottle and lost the binky...she chewed on everything including the program.

A sandbox, s'mores, a murder mystery and chocolate!

Cute Ellie is growing so fast and time is flying by. I cannot believe that she is already eight months old. She is such a good baby and so much fun.

Nic made the girls a sandbox and they LOVE it. This picture of course is not the finished product. They were so antsy to start playing in it that we decided to fill it before we finished painting it. What lucky girls to have such a good Daddy!

We had a fire in the yard last weekend and made s'mores. It was yummy. Deryck (my younger brother) and his fiance Tiara came over and cooked us yummy teriyaki chicken dinners.

Preslee loves making smores.

The LoVeBiRdS!

My sis-in-law Tiffany threw her husband a murder mystery dinner for his birthday. It was really fun.

This is my cute fathier-in-law with Ellie at the party...of course she is so spoiled with love and attention!

Solving the murder...

Me, Tiffany (who is married to Nic's brother), and Kim ( who will marry another one of Nic's brothers.)

I love this picture! These are my in-laws...totally in character! My mother-in-law was an awesome actress playing the part of the mayors wife. So funny!

Cute Preslee with her Pina Colada. Her name for the night was "Elsie Ramsey". At first she didn't love to be called that but she grew to love it. Now she keeps saying... "My name is Elsie Wamsey!"

The Lunnens minus my sister-in-law Cassidy and my brother-in-law Brady.

Lunnen guys! What a good looking group of guys! Right!?

Jamie and Tiffany were such good actors! That is what makes it fun. I loved watching them play their parts.

Ha ha! Nice face.

Party host Tif and the girls.

Ellie got some chocolate from her sister Charli...

Leggings, baby food and mini updates...

A graduation, a birthday, a message to heaven, a haircut and pears.

Even though I was finished with school over a month ago, the graduation was this last weekend. It was short and sweet and ended up being a better experience than I had expected.

Preslee had her third birthday at Classic Fun Center. It really was alot of fun. She had so much fun skating that we had to force her to open her presents.

All the kids enjoyed skating and playing on the bounce house toys, and we were so lucky to have all the cousins there along with so many other people we love!

Giana would have been 24 years old this last Sunday. Unfortunately we have celebrated 2 of her birthdays without her. We send her messages on balloons.

(watching the balloons make their way to heaven in the rain)

I had really hoped this day would never come. Preslee has had a hard time growing hair from her cute little head. We were finally making progress when she became a self-proclaimed hair-stylist and gave herself a little trim...right in the front of her hair. We spiked it so you could see the damage.

Ellie will not eat baby cereal, so today at her 6 month check-up (one month late) they told me just to give her baby food. And it didn't matter if it were fruit or veggies. I decided on pears. She gagged like crazy. Even though I know you are supposed to introduce foods one at a time I decided to try squash too. She liked it a little better, but not much.